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Trump: I could declassify documents by thinking about it

CLAX1911 said:
how am I confusing you?
nobody had access it was in the Mar-A-Lago.
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And you can prove this assertion?

Do you have footage, for example?
 
CLAX1911 said:
how am I confusing you?
nobody had access it was in the Mar-A-Lago.
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Trump did and he didn't have a clearance or a need to know. DUH.
 
poweRob said:
I had thought I declassified the docs but I said "Alacazam" instead which accidentally gave Puerto Rico statehood.
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Trump apparently bought Greenland in a dream.
 
CLAX1911 said:
how am I confusing you?
nobody had access it was in the Mar-A-Lago.
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MAL is a public access country club. That means:
  • Members
  • Members Guests
  • Maintenance Staff
  • Serving Staff
  • FPOTUS own lawyers who had neither clearance or need to know
  • Heck, they hire foreign workers at MAL
www.forbes.com

Mar-A-Lago Is Looking To Hire 91 Foreign Workers This Year

At the center of an investigation into the handling of classified information, the former president’s legal residence has a long tradition of hiring foreign workers to serve the billionaires, heads of state and other dignitaries who visit the club.
www.forbes.com www.forbes.com

WW
 
Mycroft said:
Trump says there is no process.

Is that true?

Perhaps you just don't know, eh?
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There is a strict process. The objective is to communicate with those touching files whether they need special clearance, which mental declassification falls short.
 
Davin said:
You're making no sense. People who have a clearance that access classified information have the clearance and a need to know. Trump had neither as an ex-President. He's toast. Not only is he in possession of possible classified information but he has documents that are NOT HIS to posses. Sorry you can't understand the BASICS of classified material handling and government property.
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What's funny is that all Trump's statements about declassification are admissions that he had documents that he wasn't entitled, in violation of law.
 
We can certainly see where his having won the election comes from.
 
JasperL said:
First of all, there are several laws and an EO that deal with handling classified documents, declassification, etc. and Trump complied with none of them, treated them as he would dog shit on his shoes.

Second, the laws in question that apply to not-President Donnie, the retired rich fat guy, don't CARE about classification. No need to change them, because "I waved my hand and declassified that list of covert agents!!!" even if true will be no defense to a charge under the Espionage Act, which cares only about the content.

So what law change is needed?

And again, the implications of Trump's argument, his defense, is incredibly damning for Trump and anyone that supports him. He's literally advocating for a regime that makes a complete mockery and travesty of our national security efforts to protect information that released of which would harm national security. It reveals Trump as unbelievably reckless and irresponsible and the same about those who still support him.
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I am not interested in your opinion about his claim. I am interested in where in the law it restricts how a sitting POTUS declassifies information.
 
Rich2018 said:
But he lost his right to possess those classified documents, when President Biden took office.
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That is a dispute for the courts to settle and it's likely way short of being the criminal matter that the DOJ is pursuing it as.
 
tacomancer said:
It stopped being bogged down last night once better judges weighed in.
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If I have learned nothing else over the past 6 years. I have learned that is very important for prosecution to have a judge they like over a fair one, when on a witch hunt.
 
trouble13 said:
If I have learned nothing else over the past 6 years. I have learned that is very important for prosecution to have a judge they like over a fair one, when on a witch hunt.
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Team Trump chose Judge Cannon and Dearie.

The three judges on the appeals court were randomly selected (and were mostly Trump appointees).

Given that, which judge are you referring to that the prosecutor chose?
 
BlueTex said:
Of course, if that information is still classified, discussing it publicly could be criminal...
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Yet it didn't stop the DOJ from leaking that the documents in question pertained to nuclear secrets. The DOJ think they are clever and can get away with talking out if both sides of their mouth but the only thing they are doing is cratering their credibility.
 
Mycroft said:
Okay.

I asked if there is a process that the President must follow to declassify stuff. After a lot of responses that ranged from insults to basically saying "I don't know", Obama's EO was presented. The problem, though, is that the EO doesn't pertain to the President. It is directed at agencies and individuals who work UNDER the President. So, while that EO does provide a process, the President doesn't have to follow it.
service to the public. I suggest extreme skepticism when reading anything from them. Try to find out what they DIDN'T tell you.
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You are conflating two separate issues: the authority to declassify and the requirement to go through a formal process. As I understand it, from everything that's been posted, as the CIC the President has the authority to declassify anything. However,here's nothing I have read that exempts him/her from going through the formal process. The EO applied to Trump, unless you have evidence that he amended the EO to say that the Prez can secretly, without any process or notification, declassify anything at any time.

As others have pointed out, it makes zero sense to imagine that it's possible to declassify something secretly. If you don't tell anyone, if the relevant agencies are not notified, how is the secret in question declassified? The relevant definition from Oxford for the term, "classified" reads: (of information or documents) designated as officially secret and to which only authorized people may have access. The President cannot declassify something just for him/herself. They cannot declassify a single copy of something.

I would ask whether you really want as President someone who doesn't understand not just the process but the necessity for the process of declassifying. A President is not a dictator; they have to be a team player. One reason to have a process is so that the proposal to declassify something allows agencies to weigh in; there may exist ramifications to a declassification that the President has not considered and might want to be aware of. This is how adults operate in a complex world. It's not a "I imagined it to be declassified and it magically was". Everything has consequences and responsible actors want to know to what those are before deciding how to proceed.
 
trouble13 said:
I am not interested in your opinion about his claim. I am interested in where in the law it restricts how a sitting POTUS declassifies information.
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The point is it does not matter what the law says about POTUS, and how he declassifies documents. Trump is not President and the laws in question do not care about classification. You've been told this, continue to ignore it. I don't know what it will take for this to sink in.
 
trouble13 said:
Yet it didn't stop the DOJ from leaking that the documents in question pertained to nuclear secrets. The DOJ think they are clever and can get away with talking out if both sides of their mouth but the only thing they are doing is cratering their credibility.
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What nuclear secret did you learn?
 
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